Unicorn 2004
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Transcript Unicorn 2004
The Web Enhancement Forums
Gabriele Popp,
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
EUUG, University of Bath, September 2003
Why this presentation?
Libraries change
Our demands on Unicorn change
System needs to change with us/for us
Sirsi constantly develops system
How can we influence this change and make
sure that our voices are heard as part of the
system development process?
What am I going to talk about
Sirsi Perspective
(from Unicorn Enhancement Process by Berit Nelson &
Karen Albright, Sirsi Super Conference, March 2003)
Web Forums as part of enhancement process
How the Forums work
How to use them
Live demo session
What drives development of
Unicorn
Prospective customers, i.e. Sales
Industry-identified needs, e.g. standards
organizations, advances in technology
Custom programs
and Web Enhancement Forums.
Interaction between Sirsi and
Customers
1 - 1: Individual customers and Sirsi
Sales and other meetings
Helpdesk calls
more to 1: Customer groups and Sirsi
User Groups
Webforums
Forum cycle
Sirsi Corp: Site and software management
User groups: Decide what forums they want
Customer volunteers: Moderate forums, i.e.
coordinate discussions and turn suggestions
into enhancement requests
Sirsi & Moderators: Discuss enhancement
requests
Sirsi: Implement or reject enhancements
The Forums
16 Specific Discussion Groups on:
Functionality, e.g. Acquisitions, Reports, or
Software components, e.g. iLink, Hyperion
Each group has 2 forums: a General
Discussion Forum and an Enhancement
Forum
Forum Moderators
Acquisitions: Su Cleyle, Memorial University
Cataloging: Gary Charbonneau, Indiana University
Circulation: Sylvie Szafranski, Martin County Library
System
iBistro/iLink: Janet Young, Hurst Public Library
Reports: Spencer Anspach, Indiana University
Serials: Mark McCallon, Abilene Christian University
System Administration: Holly Gordon, Texas State Library
Z39.50: Slavko Manojlovich, Memorial University
Discussions
Customer enters suggestion and starts
discussion, which may reveal
what you want to do is achievable
available in later version of Unicorn
has already been done by somebody else
can be done in another way
is a unique problem specific to your own site!
If it is something many other users support, it
will be moved to enhancement forum
Polling
Moderator reformulates the suggestion
(sometimes with clarifications)
Turns it into an enhancement request
Puts it up for a vote
You can vote
Yes (with weighting of high, medium or low
importance)
No
and add comments
Review process
Sirsi review requests on a periodic basis (currently
ca. once a year)
Requests are ranked by the number of ‘Yes’ votes
Sirsi posts response back to forum saying which
features will be added and for which release an
item is scheduled
Sirsi update existing suggestions when the feature
has been implemented
or explain why an enhancement request has been
rejected.
Why some don’t make it
Enhancements get refused by Sirsi, if
there is an easier way to accomplish requested
capability
change that is requested would “undo” previously
balloted change
forum comments indicate as many negative
ramifications as positive
there are several “no” votes
the request isn’t possible in the current
development platform, but may still become
available in the future.
Example from System Admin list
(Holly Gordon, List Moderator)
To turn a suggestion into an enhancement, it
should have about 5 support messages
Once it reaches clear consensus, it is put to
vote
Message sent to the list that an enhancement
is up for vote
Once or twice a year Sirsi and her go over
status of enhancement requests
Then...
Sirsi say how many new enhancements they
can take
Holly picks most popular ones and posts
shortlist to the list for comment
Shortlist sent to Sirsi
Sirsi respond on what they can and cannot
do, and by when
Results and status gets reported at UUGI
Forum success stories
Acquisitions
ISBN validation (2004)
Circulation
Sort checkout displays by due date or title
(2004)
OPAC
Save items to iBistro/iLink “shopping cart” for
entire session (2003)
More Successes ...
Reports
Delete reports as a group (2004)
Schedule reports on a yearly basis (2002)
Serials
Sort checkins on “expected” and “received”
tabs in ascending/descending order (2004)
System Administration
ALLTools toolbar (2002)
How to take part
Sirsi assigns one root user id and password
for each new customer, usually to the
System administrator = Super User
Root login can Create, edit and remove
users, and change their password
Super User signs up staff at their own site
NB Super User needs to create own personalized
user id to participate in forums
Access control
User logins control
Access to customer pages or “Client Care”,
for release notes, etc.
Subscriptions to SirsiTalk lists
Registration to participate in Web Forums
Passwords
System automatically creates temporary
password as part of user registration
On first login user will be prompted to
change password
Password must be at least 6 characters long
and can’t be a dictionary word
Password will automatically expire every
three months
Who to contact
If you are System administrator for your site,
contact
Sirsi Corp: email [email protected]
Sirsi UK: Steve Fletcher at
[email protected]
If you are not the root user yourself
Speak to your System Administrator
Sirsi communities
Once registered you can participate in
Sirsi Talk lists
Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
Web forums
Specific discussion groups
Sirsi Talk lists (currently 20) based around
Functionality, e.g. Acquisitions,
Cataloguing, System Administration, or
Special Interest Groups, e.g. Law, Public or
Special Libraries
Where to go for what
Urgent questions or need for immediate
response to a problem => Go to lists
New features and improvements => Relevant
General Discussion Forum
Requests for enhancements => Relevant
Enhancement Forum
How to use the forums
Create a new post
Reply to a post
View a thread
Vote
View polling results
Search through previous discussions
User features
Edit your profile, e.g. create signature,
change display
Subscribe to receive forum summaries by
email
How to find them
Forums can be found under Client Care at
Sirsi Corp website
http://www.sirsi.com/uhtbin/custinfo
When you get back
Find out or renew your root password
Get your Super User to create your login
Set-up email notices
Look at the enhancements and
VOTE!!!